LS88.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 61 



■of our own countrv, went forward rapidly and well. Less than a 

 year ago I was told by the Governor of the Fiji Islands that Dr. 

 Gray's work upon the flora of those distant lands was still the foun- 

 dation of their systematic botany. His researches into the flora of 

 Jaj)an and China are well known. Soon the "Manual of Botany" 

 appeared with its excellent arrangement and its clear and accurate 

 descriptions. Who can measure the influence of that work upon 

 the botany of our country or the effect it has had to create and 

 increase an interest in the science. At last, after an amount of 

 well directed labor and research which could have been applied 

 by no other man, and after very many "contributions" of new species 

 and "monographs" of difficult and little known genera had come 

 from his pen, the time seemed ri2)e for a real ami comparatively 

 complete "Flora of North America" to appear. We all know" how 

 two volumes of this were issued and, in a second edition, extended 

 and improved ; and how fondly we had hoped, knowing how- un- 

 impaired was his mental and physical vigor, that the whole might 

 have been finished before death claimed him. This w^as not to be; 

 but we can never be sufficiently thankful that so much which he 

 alone could give was made free to all. 



What estimate shall we place upon his work in this department 

 of the science? None but the very highest would be just. To me 

 it seems as if the systematic botany of our country owes nearly every 

 thing to Dr. Gray. Much that he did not do personally was done 

 under his eye or by his advice and approbation. He it was who 

 broucrht order out of confusion and bavins^ made stable and secure 

 the foundation of this branch of the science, erected thereon a noble 

 edifice Avhich his tireless energy well nigh completed. 



But no man could have done this who was less richly gifted than 

 Asa Gray, for he had that clear insight and prescience which is 

 genius rather than talent. In him, with eminent ability to detect 

 the relations of genera and species, were combined a rare faculty of 

 conveying his own knowledge to others by felicitous and accurate 

 description, and the conscientious truthfulness which would allow 

 no work to be carelessly or incompletely done. 



Would that it were my place also to bear testimony to his great- 

 ness of soul. But this I must leave to others, — only saying, what 

 all will recognize as true, that in the death of Dr. Gray we have, 

 in the largest sense, lost the best as well as the greatest of American 

 botanists. 



